Lutins d'élite : Mission Noël

I went into this thinking I would end up watching another boring animated Christmas special but I was surprised. I actually enjoyed it and while I can see why one reviewer thought it was militarized, it's still better than a lot of the animated specials I've seen in the past few years. Yes, we should leave the military out of it and stop prepping the kids for war! There were no angry wolves trying to eat the characters and the humour was not aimed at the adults as is so often the case in animated features these days. I guess having John Lasseter as executive producer helps. I grew up on Frosty, Rudolph, The Grinch and now that I think of it, they also had some darker elements to them but they are and continue to be classics. I don't know if this one will be a classic but the animation is top notch and kids are not fooled by cheap imitations these days.

I generally loathe Christmas movies (Its A Wonderful Life is an exception) and Christmas cartoons are usually worse. This is a little masterpiece - helmed by John Lasseter, how could it go wrong? There is a perfect marriage of material that children and adults can enjoy, much the same as most of the Pixar projects. The voice overs are excellent and the whole thing manages to sidestep the mawkish and still remains magical. The animation is of the usual high quality and the writing is terrific. it bears rewatching and is sure to be part of a regular Christmas TV schedule. Why cannot others manage to do this? Surely Pixar are not the only production company with good writers, animators and directors. The problem is,I guess, that Lasseter has set the bar so high it is almost impossible to compete with such a fantastic talent.

I am 60+ and my husband and I watch it every year and just smile. So cute and funny, just a fun watch.

It captured the essence of a great Christmas special without finding the pitfalls of so many other recent Christmas movies. It is contains a great deal of technological references with analogs of NASA and naval terminology and procedures, but it doesn't take the magic out of Santa. There is no attempt at explaining Santa's abilities with special engines or "Clausometers," it shows the realistic and humorous backline of Santa's huge operation. Like any great Christmas movie it has a perfectly Christmas-spirit ending that makes you feel more like a perfect you. Hilarious,touching, exciting, and it has a ton of historical, pop-cultural, and technological references. We are watching it a second time! We loved it!

After recording this on DVR last year, I finally got to watch Prep & Landing today this Christmas Day. After a little more than 200 years of helping Santa make smooth landings on houses' roofs, one of the elves gets a little sour, attitude-wise, when he doesn't get a promotion and almost alienates his new partner. Then, a creature gets discovered stirring and there's a blizzard and...oh, just watch the animated special if you want to know what happens and just enjoy the hip holiday references that get sprinkled throughout that help make "Prep & Landing" such an enjoyable treat to watch thanks to all responsible for this Disney production.